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Tuesday, March 6, 2018

What Will Become of the Orthodox in the [u]nited States?

One
wonders what lies in store for the Orthodox Church in the States, for she is
opposed to what all the major power groups hold dear:

The
‘Right’

These
are the true believers in ‘Christian America’, the ideological children of the
Puritans who believe America is a ‘chosen nation’, the ‘New Israel’, the
‘shining city on a hill’, and therefore must be the leader of the world or else
all will fall into chaos.The autonomous
individual is paramount for them; hierarchy is deplorable; and they tend to
worship paper documents called the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

The
Orthodox present quite a threat to this version of the ‘American
experiment’.Moscow for them is the
Third Rome, the true center of Christianity in the world.They long for the return of the Christian
emperor, the Russian Tsar, and for the peace and order he will help establish
in the world (and the evangelism that goes along with those two).They understand that hierarchy is natural and
to be desired.They worship the Holy
Trinity and honor the Mother of God, the saints, the angels, the holy icons and
relics, and the Holy Scriptures, not a man-made philosophy about rights.The one-sidedness of individualism is
rejected for a balance between the one and the many:Each man and woman has a personal existence,
but they are ontologically united to all others, share a common life with them,
and by no means can be considered in isolation from them (that is nominalism,
as Fr Matthew Raphael Johnson would be quick to point out).

The
‘Middle’:

This
is the great bulk of the people living in the States.They are interested only in what Rev Francis
Schaeffer called ‘personal peace and affluence’.They live to make money and spend it on tasty
food, various consumer goods, sports and other entertainment, etc.Religion for them is basically another
consumer good, something that they do if it fits their taste.They will vote for politicians who will
maintain the worldly status quo.

The
Orthodox ethos of asceticism and poverty, of self-denial and humility, is an
affront to this way of life.

The
‘Left’

These
have taken the individualism, hierarchy hatred, and materialism of America to their
logical conclusions.One’s identity can
transition from one gender, race, etc. to another based on the feelings one has
from moment to moment.One can even
merge with a machine and become post-human or trans-human.Communism is another mantra of theirs:
everyone should enjoy material comfort, and no one should have anymore than
anyone else because all are equal.All
truth is relative to them (except, ironically, the pre-suppositions they
believe in as articles of faith).

They
will loath the Orthodox because of the stress they place on the distinctions of
man and woman, of ethnicity, and so on, and on hierarchy. The Orthodox rejection of material pleasure as
the ultimate end of life is also bewildering to the Left, as is the Orthodox
defense of Absolute Truth embodied in the enfleshed Lord Jesus Christ.

With
polarization continuing to rise in the States betwixt these groups, and
especially in light of all the vile lies being told to demonize Russia, the
Orthodox will likely be caught up in the melee at some point, however much they
try to stay out of it.So it seems right
for all Orthodox to be prepared for persecution and possibly martyrdom, as they
will be seen as untrustworthy by all segments of modern American society.

A
look back at Western European history since her break from the Orthodox Church
is a continual line of unnecessary bloodshed:the Norman Invasion, the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch trials, the
wars between Roman Catholics and Protestants, violence against and exploitation
of the native populations of the Americas, Africa, and Asia, the ‘war on
terror’, etc.This violent impulse has
in no way been healed here in the States, though it has been soothed and subdued
for the moment by economic prosperity and various other distractions (sports,
TV, and the like).It could break out
again at any moment.

There
is a group of martyrs that the Orthodox in the States should keep well in
mind.It shows what the tolerant,
humanistic faith of the West is capable of:

Thirty-four Holy Martyrs
of the Monastery of Valaam (1578)

These thirty-four
venerable fathers of the Monastery of the Transfiguration at Valaam on Lake
Ladoga were massacred by a party of converts to Lutheranism who besieged the
monastery and attempted to make the brethren renounce the Orthodox Faith.

Saint
Peter was a young Aleut convert to the Orthodox faith. In 1812 the
Russian- American Company set up a post in California, where Russians and
Aleuts farmed and traded to supply the needs of the Alaskans; Peter was one of
these. The Spanish, who at the time ruled California, suspected the Russians of
territorial ambitions, and in 1815 captured about twenty Orthodox Aleuts and
took them to San Francisco. Fourteen of these were put to torture in an effort
to convert them to the Roman Catholic faith. All refused to compromise their
faith, and Peter and a companion were singled out for especially vicious
treatment: Peter's fingers, then hands and feet, were severed, and he died from
loss of blood, still firm in his confession. The Latins were preparing the same
fate for the others when word came that they were to be transferred; eventually
they returned to Alaska. When he heard a first-hand account of Peter's
martyrdom, Saint Herman crossed himself and said "Holy New Martyr Peter,
pray to God for us!" Saint Peter the Aleut is the first recognized Saint
of American birth.

Maybe
it will go better for the Orthodox in the South, where high-church liturgy and
a less partisan stance on denominationalism have always been fairly strong,
along with some cultural likenesses to Orthodoxy like hierarchy, but there are
no guarantees there either, for the cancer of ‘Americanism’ has metastasized
from New England into much of Dixie.

We
pray for God’s help and protection, for the peaceful conversion of all the
different nations that make up the [u]nited States:New England, Midwest, Dixie, West Coast,
Alaska, etc.However, no one should rule
out the possibility of persecution and martyrdom, and live accordingly.

***

Another
view:

Dr
Steve Turley sees hopeful signs in a fledgling alliance of Evangelicals in the
States, led by folks like Rev Franklin Graham, with the Orthodox Church in
Russia:

That
is a step in the right direction, but will such a development be able to
overcome all the vitriol directed against Russia by lots of other Evangelicals
and so-called conservatives, from Tony Perkins, National Review, Joel Rosenberg (whose new book is part of the
renewed attack on Russia: https://www.tyndale.com/p/the-kremlin-conspiracy/9781496406170), Rush Limbaugh, etc.?

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Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!